Contents

Early accounts reported that in 1661 a local landowner, John Mompesson, owner of a house in the town of Tedworth (now called Tidworth, in Wiltshire), had brought a lawsuit against an unlicensed vagrant drummer William Drury, whom he accused of collecting money by false pretences. After he had won judgment against the drummer, the drum was turned over to Mompesson by the local bailiff. Mompesson then found his house plagued by nocturnal drumming noises, it was alleged that the drummer had brought these plagues of noise upon Mompesson's head by witchcraft.[2] Drury was said to have been associated with a band of gypsies.

Glanvill, who visited the house in 1663, had claimed to have heard strange scratching noises under a bed in the children's room.[3][4]

On Christmas Day 1667, Samuel Pepys, in his diary, records his wife, Elizabeth, reading the story to him, he found it to be "a strange story of spirits and worth reading indeed".

In 1668, Glanvill published one of the earlier versions of Saducismus Triumphatus, his A Blow at Modern Sadducism ... To which is added, The Relation of the Fam'd Disturbance by the Drummer, in the House of Mr. John Mompesson.

In Volume III of The Works of the Reverend John Wesley there is a reference to the Drummer at Tedworth. "The famous instance of this, which has been spread far and wide, was the drumming in Mr Mompesson's house at Tedworth; who, it was said, acknowledged, 'It was all a trick, and that he had found out the whole contrivance.' Not so, my eldest brother, then at Christ Church, Oxon, inquired of Mr Mompesson, his fellow collegian, 'Whether his father had acknowledged this or not:' He answered, 'The resort of gentlemen to my father's house was so great, he could not bear the expense. He therefore took no pains to confute the report, that he had found out the cheat: although he and I, and all the family knew the account which was published, to be punctually true.' "[5]

Amos Norton Craft (1881) also suggested that the phenomena were the result of trickery:

We are to remember also, that the house of Mr. Mompesson contained several servants who doubtless possessed a good degree of human nature; Mr. Mompesson had caused the arrest and imprisonment of a member of a band of gypsies, who were intensely enraged at him on that account that the disturbance ceased as soon as the gypsy was transported beyond the sea and his associates had no farther hope of his release; that these manifestations began again as soon as the gypsy returned from transportation; that the gypsy professed to be the cause of the disturbance, and that the excited imagination would naturally add to the manifestations which the enraged trickster really produced.[7]

Addington Bruce (1908) has argued that the phenomenon was fraudulently manufactured by Mompesson's own children, especially his oldest daughter, a girl of ten. Bruce wrote that the noises and movement of objects were reminiscent of pranks and often occurred in the children's bedroom. Bruce noted that Glanvill "passed only one night in the haunted house, and of his several experiences there is none that cannot be set down to fraud plus imagination, with the children the active agents."[8]

1.
Saducismus Triumphatus
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Saducismus triumphatus is a book on witchcraft by Joseph Glanvill, published posthumously in England in 1681. The editor is presumed to have been Henry More, who contributed to the volume. By 1683 this appeared as a lengthy appendix, hornecks contribution came from a Dutch pamphlet of 1670. The book affirmed the existence of witches with malign supernatural powers of magic, Glanvill likened these skeptics to the Sadducees, members of a Jewish sect from around the time of Jesus who were said to have denied the immortality of the soul. The book strongly influenced Cotton Mather in his Discourse on Witchcraft, mathers Wonders of the Invisible World is largely modeled after this book and its reports, particularly the material relating to the Mora witch trial of 1669. Sadducismus Triumphatus at the Internet Archive

2.
Poltergeist
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In folklore and parapsychology, a Poltergeist is a type of ghost or other supernatural entity which is responsible for physical disturbances, such as loud noises and objects being moved or destroyed. They are purportedly capable of pinching, biting, hitting, most accounts of poltergeists describe the movement or levitation of objects such as furniture and cutlery, or noises such as knocking on doors. They have traditionally described as troublesome spirits who haunt a particular person instead of a specific location. Such alleged poltergeist manifestations have been reported in many cultures and countries including the United States, India‚ Japan, Brazil, Australia, early accounts date back to the 1st century. The word poltergeist comes from the German language words poltern and Geist, many claimed poltergeist events have proved on investigation to be pranks. Skeptic Joe Nickell says that claimed poltergeist incidents typically originate from an individual who is motivated to cause mischief, Nickell writes that reports are often exaggerated by credulous witnesses. According to research in psychology, claims of poltergeist activity can be explained by psychological factors such as illusion, memory lapses. A study wrote that poltergeist experiences are delusions resulting from the affective and cognitive dynamics of percipients interpretation of ambiguous stimuli, attempts have also been made to scientifically explain poltergeist disturbances that have not been traced to fraud or psychological factors. In the 1950s, Guy William Lambert proposed that reported poltergeist phenomena could be explained by the movement of water causing stress on houses. He suggested that water turbulence could cause strange sounds or structural movement of the property, possibly causing the house to vibrate and move objects. Later researchers, such as Alan Gauld and Tony Cornell, tested Lamberts hypothesis by placing objects in different rooms. They discovered that although the structure of the building had been damaged, the skeptic Trevor H. Hall criticized the hypothesis claiming if it was true the building would almost certainly fall into ruins. According to Richard Wiseman the hypothesis has not held up to scrutiny, michael Persinger has theorized that seismic activity could cause poltergeist phenomena. David Turner, a physical chemist, suggested that ball lightning might cause the spooky movement of objects blamed on poltergeists. Parapsychologists such as Nandor Fodor and William G, roll wrote that poltergeist activity can be explained by psychokinesis. Poltergeist activity has often been believed to be the work of malicious spirits, according to Allan Kardec, the founder of Spiritism, poltergeists are manifestations of disembodied spirits of low level, belonging to the sixth class of the third order. Under this explanation, they are believed to be associated with the elements. Thornton Heath poltergeist Robbie Mannheim, claimed to be demonically possessed after using a Ouija board, the Enfield Poltergeist The Thornton Road poltergeist of Birmingham Tina Resch The Stone-Throwing Spook of Little Dixie The Canneto di Caronia fires poltergeist Christopher, Milbourne

3.
Joseph Glanvill
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Joseph Glanvill was an English writer, philosopher, and clergyman. In 1661 he predicted The time will come, when making use of waves that permeate the ether. we shall communicate with. He was raised in a strict Puritan household, and educated at Oxford University, Glanvill was made vicar of Frome in 1662, and was a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1664. He was rector of the Abbey Church at Bath from 1666 to 1680, latitudinarians generally respected the Cambridge Platonists, and Glanvill was friendly with and much influenced by Henry More, a leader in that group where Glanvill was a follower. It was Glanvills style to seek out a way on contemporary philosophical issues. His writings display a variety of beliefs that may appear contradictory, there is discussion of Glanvills thought and method in Basil Willeys Seventeenth Century Background. He was the author of The Vanity of Dogmatizing, which attacked scholasticism and it was a plea for religious toleration, the scientific method, and freedom of thought. It also contained a tale that became the material for Matthew Arnolds Victorian poem The Scholar Gipsy and it started with an explicit Address to the Royal Society, the Society responded by electing him as Fellow. He continued in a role of spokesman for his type of limited sceptical approach, as part of his programme, he argued for a plain use of language, undistorted as to definitions and reliance on metaphor. In Essays on Several Important Subjects in Philosophy and Religion he wrote a significant essay The Agreement of Reason and Religion, Reason, in Glanvills view, was incompatible with being a dissenter. This essay has the subtitle Continuation of the New Atlantis, in an allegory, Glanvill placed the Young Academicians, standing for the Cambridge Platonists, in the midst of intellectual troubles matching the religious upheavals seen in Britain. They coped by combining modern with ancient thought, Glanvill thought, however, that the world cannot be deduced from reason alone. Even the supernatural cannot be solved from first principles and must be investigated empirically, as a result, Glanvill attempted to investigate supposed supernatural incidents through interviews and examination of the scene of the events. In the matter of the Drummer of Tedworth, a report of activity from 1662-3, More. Sadducismus Triumphatus deeply influenced Cotton Mathers Wonders of the Invisible World, jonathan Israel writes, These and others believed that the tide of scepticism on witchcraft, setting in strongly by about 1670, could be turned back by research and sifting of the evidence. Like More, Glanvill believed that the existence of spirits was well documented in the Bible, atheism led to rebellion and social chaos and therefore had to be overcome by science and the activities of the learned. His views did not prevent Glanvill himself being charged with atheism and this happened after he engaged in a controversy with Robert Crosse, over the continuing value of the work of Aristotle, the classical exponent of the middle way. In defending himself and the Royal Society, in Plus ultra, he attacked current teaching of medicine and his views on Aristotle also led to an attack by Thomas White, the Catholic priest known as Blacklo

4.
Tidworth
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Tidworth is a garrison town and civil parish in south-east Wiltshire, England, located along the A338 road and close to the A303 road. It has a civilian population. Tidworth was listed in the Domesday Book as Todeorde, in the Andover Hundred and it was once the family home of the Studd family. On John Speeds maps, the town is referred to as Tudworth, North Tudworth belonging to Amesbury hundred in Wilshire, and South Tudworth to Andover hundred in Hamshire. When the boundary between Wiltshire and Hampshire was redrawn in 1992, the old distinction between North Tidworth and South Tidworth vanished, and the town became part of Wiltshire. The two parts remained as civil parishes until 1 April 2004. In recent years the population of the town has increased as Tidworth Camp has expanded, the population of Tidworth will continue to increase with the implementation of the Army Basing Plan leading up to 2020. The parish elects a town council, the parish includes the village of Perham Down. It is in the area of Wiltshire Council unitary authority, which is responsible for most local government functions, an electoral ward exists with the same name. The population of the ward taken at the 2011 census was 9,174 and its situation near the A303, and hence the M3, places Tidworth within commuting distance of London. Tidworth has a commercial area containing two supermarkets, two veterinary surgeries, a pharmacy, and other shops and services including a 900mobile phone shop. A dental surgery serves Tidworth and the area, covering approximately 5,000 people. In 2003 a new centre was completed, the cost being split between the Ministry of Defence and the NHS, as it serves the armed forces and their dependants within the surrounding area. Tidworth has one of the lowest crime rates per thousand in Wiltshire, in 2014, it was rated by the Royal Mail as the most attractive postcode area to live in in England. The community is served by three schools and an infant school. The Wellington Academy, which was sponsored by Wellington College, opened in September 2009. The academy has a sixth form college, a sports pitch. The parent unit of the CCF is 26 Royal Engineers, housed nearby at Swinton Barracks, the local garrison commander is a governor of the academy

5.
Wiltshire
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Wiltshire is a county in South West England with an area of 3,485 km2. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, the county town was originally Wilton, after which the county is named, but Wiltshire Council is now based in the new county town of Trowbridge. Wiltshire is characterised by its high downland and wide valleys, Salisbury Plain is noted for being the location of the Stonehenge and Avebury stone circles and other ancient landmarks, and as a training area for the British Army. The city of Salisbury is notable for its mediaeval cathedral, important country houses open to the public include Longleat, near Warminster, and the National Trusts Stourhead, near Mere. The county, in the 9th century written as Wiltunscir, later Wiltonshire, is named after the county town of Wilton. Wiltshire is notable for its pre-Roman archaeology, the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age people that occupied southern Britain built settlements on the hills and downland that cover Wiltshire. Stonehenge and Avebury are perhaps the most famous Neolithic sites in the UK, in the 6th and 7th centuries Wiltshire was at the western edge of Saxon Britain, as Cranborne Chase and the Somerset Levels prevented the advance to the west. The Battle of Bedwyn was fought in 675 between Escuin, a West Saxon nobleman who had seized the throne of Queen Saxburga, in 878 the Danes invaded the county. Following the Norman Conquest, large areas of the country came into the possession of the crown, at the time of the Domesday Survey the industry of Wiltshire was largely agricultural,390 mills are mentioned, and vineyards at Tollard and Lacock. In the 17th century English Civil War Wiltshire was largely Parliamentarian, the Battle of Roundway Down, a Royalist victory, was fought near Devizes. The Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry currently lives on as Y Squadron, based in Swindon, around 1800 the Kennet and Avon Canal was built through Wiltshire, providing a route for transporting cargoes from Bristol to London until the development of the Great Western Railway. Information on the 261 civil parishes of Wiltshire is available on the Wiltshire Community History website, run by the Libraries and this site includes maps, demographic data, historic and modern pictures and short histories. The local nickname for Wiltshire natives is moonrakers and this originated from a story of smugglers who managed to foil the local Excise men by hiding their alcohol, possibly French brandy in barrels or kegs, in a village pond. The officials took them for simple yokels or mad and left them alone, many villages claim the tale for their own village pond, but the story is most commonly linked with The Crammer in Devizes. Two-thirds of Wiltshire, a rural county, lies on chalk. This chalk is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group, the largest area of chalk in Wiltshire is Salisbury Plain, which is used mainly for arable agriculture and by the British Army as training ranges. The highest point in the county is the Tan Hill–Milk Hill ridge in the Pewsey Vale, just to the north of Salisbury Plain, the chalk uplands run northeast into West Berkshire in the Marlborough Downs ridge, and southwest into Dorset as Cranborne Chase. Cranborne Chase, which straddles the border, has, like Salisbury Plain, yielded much Stone Age, the Marlborough Downs are part of the North Wessex Downs AONB, a 1,730 km2 conservation area

6.
Witchcraft
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Witchcraft broadly means the practice of, and belief in, magical skills and abilities that are able to be exercised by individuals and certain social groups. Witchcraft often occupies a religious, divinatory or medicinal role, and is present within societies. The concept of witchcraft and the belief in its existence have existed throughout recorded history and it posits a theosophical conflict between good and evil, where witchcraft was generally evil and often associated with the Devil and Devil worship. Christian views in the day are diverse and cover the gamut of views from intense belief and opposition to non-belief. From the mid-20th century, witchcraft – sometimes called contemporary witchcraft to clearly distinguish it from older beliefs – became the name of a branch of modern paganism and it is most notably practiced in the Wiccan and modern witchcraft traditions, and no longer practices in secrecy. The Western mainstream Christian view is far from the only societal perspective about witchcraft, Beliefs related to witchcraft and magic in these cultures were at times influenced by the prevailing Western concepts. Suspicion of modern medicine due to beliefs about illness being due to witchcraft also continues in countries to this day. HIV/AIDS and Ebola virus disease are two examples of infectious disease epidemics whose medical care and containment has been severely hampered by regional beliefs in witchcraft. Other severe medical conditions whose treatment is hampered in this way include tuberculosis, leprosy, epilepsy, the word witchcraft derives from the Old English wiccecræft, a compound of wicce and cræft. This definition was pioneered in a study of central African magical beliefs by E. E. Evans-Pritchard, European witchcraft is seen by historians and anthropologists as an ideology for explaining misfortune, however, this ideology has manifested in diverse ways, as described below. Some modern commentators believe the malefic nature of witchcraft is a Christian projection, many examples appear in early texts, such as those from ancient Egypt and Babylonia. Malicious magic users can become a cause for disease, sickness in animals, bad luck, sudden death, impotence. Witchcraft of a benign and socially acceptable sort may then be employed to turn the malevolence aside. The folk magic used to identify or protect against malicious magic users is often indistinguishable from that used by the witches themselves, there has also existed in popular belief the concept of white witches and white witchcraft, which is strictly benevolent. Many neopagan witches strongly identify with this concept, and profess ethical codes that prevent them from performing magic on a person without their request. Probably the most obvious characteristic of a witch was the ability to cast a spell, spell being the word used to signify the means employed to carry out a magical action. A spell could consist of a set of words, a formula or verse, or a ritual action, or any combination of these. Strictly speaking, necromancy is the practice of conjuring the spirits of the dead for divination or prophecy – although the term has also applied to raising the dead for other purposes

7.
Romani people
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The Romani are widely known among English-speaking people by the exonym Gypsies, which some people consider pejorative due to its connotations of illegality and irregularity. Romani are dispersed, with their populations in Europe – especially Central, Eastern and Southern Europe including Turkey, Spain. Since the 19th century, some Romani have also migrated to the Americas, there are an estimated one million Roma in the United States, and 800,000 in Brazil, most of whose ancestors emigrated in the nineteenth century from eastern Europe. Brazil also includes some Romani descended from people deported by the government of Portugal during the Inquisition in the colonial era, in migrations since the late nineteenth century, Romani have also moved to other countries in South America and to Canada. In February 2016, during the International Roma Conference, the Indian Minister of External Affairs stated that the people of the Roma community were children of India. The conference ended with a recommendation to the Government of India to recognize the Roma community spread across 30 countries as a part of the Indian diaspora, the Romani language is divided into several dialects, which add up to an estimated number of speakers larger than two million. The total number of Romani people is at least twice as large, many Romani are native speakers of the language current in their country of residence, or of mixed languages combining the two, those varieties are sometimes called Para-Romani. French bohème, bohémien, from the Kingdom of Bohemia, whence they came, Rom means man or husband in the Romani, it has the variants dom and lom, related with the Sanskrit words dam-pati, dama, lom, lomaka loman, roman. Another possible origin is from Sanskrit डोम doma, Sanskrit सिनधु is a river or stream of water in general. In particular, it denotes the river Indus and the country around it, in the Romani language, Rom is a masculine noun, meaning man of the Roma ethnic group or man, husband, with the plural Roma. The feminine of Rom in the Romani language is Romni, however, in most cases, in other languages Rom is now used for people of all genders. Romani is the adjective, while Romano is the masculine adjective. Some Romanies use Rom or Roma as a name, while others do not use this term as a self-ascription for the entire ethnic group. Sometimes, rom and romani are spelled with a r, i. e. rrom. In this case rr is used to represent the phoneme /ʀ/, the rr spelling is common in certain institutions, or used in certain countries, e. g. Romania, to distinguish from the endonym/homonym for Romanians. In the English language, Rom is a noun and an adjective, while Romani is also a noun, both Rom and Romani have been in use in English since the 19th century as an alternative for Gypsy. Romani was initially spelled Rommany, then Romany, while today the Romani spelling is the most popular spelling, occasionally, the double r spelling mentioned above is also encountered in English texts. The term Roma is increasingly encountered during recent decades, as a term for the Romani people

8.
Samuel Pepys
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Samuel Pepys FRS was an administrator of the navy of England and Member of Parliament who is most famous for the diary that he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man. Pepys had no experience, but he rose to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under both King Charles II and King James II through patronage, hard work, and his talent for administration. His influence and reforms at the Admiralty were important in the early professionalisation of the Royal Navy, the detailed private diary that Pepys kept from 1660 until 1669 was first published in the 19th century and is one of the most important primary sources for the English Restoration period. It provides a combination of personal revelation and eyewitness accounts of events, such as the Great Plague of London, the Second Dutch War. Pepys was born in Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, London on 23 February 1633, the son of John Pepys, a tailor and his great uncle Talbot Pepys was Recorder and briefly Member of Parliament for Cambridge in 1625. His fathers first cousin Sir Richard Pepys was elected MP for Sudbury in 1640, appointed Baron of the Exchequer on 30 May 1654, Pepys was the fifth of eleven children, but child mortality was high and he was soon the oldest survivor. He was baptised at St Brides Church on 3 March, Pepys did not spend all of his infancy in London, for a while, he was sent to live with nurse Goody Lawrence at Kingsland, just north of the city. In about 1644, Pepys attended Huntingdon Grammar School before being educated at St Pauls School, London and he attended the execution of Charles I in 1649. In 1650, he went to Cambridge University, having received two exhibitions from St Pauls School and a grant from the Mercers Company. In October, he was admitted as a sizar to Magdalene College, he moved there in March 1651, later in 1654 or early in 1655, he entered the household of another of his fathers cousins, Sir Edward Montagu, who was later created 1st Earl of Sandwich. From a young age, Pepys suffered from stones in his urinary tract – a condition from which his mother and brother John also later suffered. He was almost never without pain, as well as other symptoms, by the time of his marriage, the condition was very severe. In 1657 Pepys decided to undergo surgery, not an option, as the operation was known to be especially painful. Nevertheless, Pepys consulted surgeon Thomas Hollier and, on 26 March 1658, Pepys stone was successfully removed and he resolved to hold a celebration on every anniversary of the operation, which he did for several years. However, there were long-term effects from the operation, the incision on his bladder broke open again late in his life. The procedure may have left him sterile, though there is no evidence for this. In mid-1658 Pepys moved to Axe Yard, near the modern Downing Street and he worked as a teller in the Exchequer under George Downing. On 1 January 1660, Pepys began to keep a diary and he recorded his daily life for almost ten years

9.
Charles Mackay (author)
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Charles Mackay was a Scottish poet, journalist, author, anthologist, novelist, and songwriter, remembered mainly for his book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Charles Mackay was born in Perth, Scotland and his father, George Mackay, was a bombardier in the Royal Artillery, and his mother Amelia Cargill died shortly after his birth. His birthdate was 26 March 1812, although he gave it as 27 March 1814. Mackay was educated at the Caledonian Asylum, in London, in 1828 he was placed by his father at a school in Brussels, on the Boulevard de Namur, and studied languages. In the summer of 1830 he visited Paris, and he spent 1831 with Cockerill at Aix-la-Chapelle, in May 1832 his father brought him back to London, where he first found employment in teaching Italian to Benjamin Lumley. Mackay engaged in journalism in London, in 1834 he was a contributor to The Sun. From the spring of 1835 till 1844 he was assistant sub-editor of the Morning Chronicle, in the autumn of 1839 he spent a months holiday in Scotland, witnessing the Eglintoun Tournament, which he described in the Chronicle, and making acquaintances in Edinburgh. In the autumn of 1844, he moved to Scotland, and became editor of the Glasgow Argus and he worked for the Illustrated London News in 1848, becoming editor in 1852. Mackay visited North America in the 1850s, publishing his observations as Life and Liberty in America, or Sketches of a Tour of the United States and Canada in 1857–58. During the American Civil War he returned there as a correspondent for The Times, Mackay had the degree of LL. D. from the University of Glasgow in 1846. He was a member of the Percy Society, Mackay published Songs and Poems, a History of London, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, and a romance entitled, Longbeard. The linguist Anatoly Liberman has described MacKay as an etymological monomaniac commenting that He was hauled over the coals by his contemporaries and never taken seriously during his lifetime. His fame chiefly rested upon his songs, some of which, including Cheer, Boys, Cheer, were set to music by Henry Russell in 1846, Charles Mackay wrote the popular poem You have no enemies, you say. You have no enemies, you say, alas, my friend, the boast is poor, He who has mingled in the fray Of duty, that the brave endure, Must have made foes. If you have none, Small is the work that you have done, You’ve hit no traitor on the hip, You’ve dashed no cup from perjured lip, You’ve never set the wrong to right. You’ve been a coward in the fight, another popular poem is Who shall be fairest. Who shall be first in the songs that we sing and she who is kindest when fortune is blindest, Bearing through winter the blooms of the spring. Charm of our gladness, friend of our sadness, Angel of life when its pleasures take wing and she shall be fairest, she shall be rarest She shall be first in the songs that we sing

10.
Practical joke
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A practical joke is a mischievous trick played on someone, generally causing the victim to experience embarrassment, perplexity, confusion or discomfort. A person who performs a practical joke is called a practical joker, other terms for practical jokes include prank, gag, jape, or shenanigan. Practical jokes differ from confidence tricks or hoaxes in that the finds out, or is let in on the joke. Practical jokes are generally lighthearted and without lasting impact, their purpose is to make the victim feel humbled or foolish, in this fashion, most practical jokes are affectionate gestures of humour and designed to encourage laughter. However, practical jokes performed with cruelty can constitute bullying, whose intent is to harass or exclude rather than reinforce social bonds through ritual humbling, in Western culture, April Fools Day is a day traditionally dedicated to conducting practical jokes. A practical joke is practical because it consists of doing something physical. The joker would then wait for the victim to walk through the doorway, objects can also be used in practical jokes, like fake vomit, chewing gum bugs, exploding cigars, stink bombs, costumes and whoopee cushions. Practical jokes often occur inside offices, usually to surprise co-workers, covering the computer accessories with Jell-O, wrapping the desk with Christmas paper or aluminium foil or filling it with balloons are just some examples of office pranks. Practical jokes are also common occurrences during sleepovers, whereby teens will play pranks on their friends as they come into the home, American humorist H. Allen Smith wrote a 320-page book in 1953 called The Compleat Practical Joker that contains numerous examples of practical jokes. The book became a best seller not only in the United States, moira Marsh has written an entire volume about practical jokes. One of her findings is that in the USA they are often done by males than females. A practical joke recalled as his favorite by the playwright Charles MacArthur, concerns the American painter, while living in Paris in the 1920s, Peirce made a gift of a very big turtle to the woman who was the concierge of his building. The woman doted on the turtle and lavished care on it, a few days later Peirce substituted a somewhat larger turtle for the original one. This continued for some time, with larger and larger turtles being surreptitiously introduced into the womans apartment, the concierge was beside herself with happiness and displayed her miraculous turtle to the entire neighborhood. Peirce then began to sneak in and replace the turtle with smaller and smaller ones and this was the storyline behind Esio Trot, by Roald Dahl. Modern and successful pranks often take advantage of the modernization of tools, in Canada, engineering students have a reputation for annual pranks, at the University of British Columbia these usually involve leaving a Volkswagen beetle in an unexpected location. A similar prank was undertaken by engineering students at Cambridge University, England, pranks can also adapt to the political context of the era. Students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are particularly known for their hacks, many practical jokers are comedians or entertainers, while others engage in pranks connected to social activism or to protest movements

11.
Andrew Lang
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Andrew Lang was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales, the Andrew Lang lectures at the University of St Andrews are named after him. On 17 April 1875, he married Leonora Blanche Alleyne, youngest daughter of C. T. Alleyne of Clifton and she was variously credited as author, collaborator, or translator of Langs Color/Rainbow Fairy Books which he edited. He soon made a reputation as one of the most able and versatile writers of the day as a journalist, poet, critic, in 1906, he was elected FBA. He died of angina pectoris at the Tor-na-Coille Hotel in Banchory, Banchory and he was buried in the cathedral precincts at St Andrews. Lang is now known for his publications on folklore, mythology. The interest in folklore was from early life, he read John Ferguson McLennan before coming to Oxford, the earliest of his publications is Custom and Myth. In Myth, Ritual and Religion he explained the irrational elements of mythology as survivals from more primitive forms and his Blue Fairy Book was a beautifully produced and illustrated edition of fairy tales that has become a classic. This was followed by other collections of fairy tales, collectively known as Andrew Langs Fairy Books. In the preface of the Lilac Fairy Book he credits his wife with translating and transcribing most of the stories in the collections, Lang examined the origins of totemism in Social Origins. Lang was one of the founders of psychical research and his writings on anthropology include The Book of Dreams and Ghosts, Magic and Religion. He served as President of the Society for Psychical Research in 1911. He collaborated with S. H. Butcher in a translation of Homers Odyssey. He was a Homeric scholar of conservative views, Langs writings on Scottish history are characterised by a scholarly care for detail, a piquant literary style, and a gift for disentangling complicated questions. He also wrote monographs on The Portraits and Jewels of Mary Stuart and James VI, the somewhat unfavourable view of John Knox presented in his book John Knox and the Reformation aroused considerable controversy. He gave new information about the career of the Young Pretender in Pickle the Spy, an account of Alestair Ruadh MacDonnell, whom he identified with Pickle. This was followed by The Companions of Pickle and a monograph on Prince Charles Edward, in 1900 he began a History of Scotland from the Roman Occupation. He edited The Poems and Songs of Robert Burns, and was responsible for the Life and Letters of JG Lockhart, and The Life, Letters and Diaries of Sir Stafford Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh

12.
Society for Psychical Research
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The Society for Psychical Research is a non-profit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal and it describes itself as the first society to conduct organised scholarly research into human experiences that challenge contemporary scientific models. It does not however, since its inception in 1882, hold any corporate opinions, the Society for Psychical Research originated from a discussion between journalist Edmund Rogers and the physicist William F. Barrett in autumn 1881. This led to a conference on the 5 and 6 January 1882 at the headquarters of the British National Association of Spiritualists which the foundation of the Society was proposed. The committee included Barrett, Rogers, Stainton Moses, Charles Massey, Edmund Gurney, Hensleigh Wedgwood, the SPR was formally constituted on the 20 February 1882 with philosopher Henry Sidgwick as its first president. Other early members included the chemist William Crookes, physicist Oliver Lodge, Nobel laureate Charles Richet, members of the SPR initiated and organized the International Congresses of Physiological/Experimental psychology. Areas of study included hypnotism, dissociation, thought-transference, mediumship, Reichenbach phenomena, apparitions and haunted houses, the SPR were to introduce a number of neologisms which have entered the English language, such as telepathy, which was coined by Frederic Myers. The Society is run by a President and a Council of twenty members and it publishes the peer reviewed quarterly Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, the irregular Proceedings and the magazine Paranormal Review. It holds a conference, regular lectures and two study days per year and supports the LEXSCIEN on-line library project. Among the first important works was the publication in 1886, Phantasms of the Living, concerning telepathy and apparitions, co-authored by Gurney, Myers. Out of these,1,684 persons reported having experienced a hallucination of an apparition, during the early twentieth century, the SPR studied a series of automatic scripts and trance utterances from a group of automatic writers, known as the cross-correspondences. Famous cases investigated by the Society include Borley Rectory and the Enfield Poltergeist, much of the early work involved investigating, exposing and in some cases duplicating fake phenomena. In the late 19th century, SPR investigations into séance phenomena led to the exposure of many fraudulent mediums, richard Hodgson distinguished himself in that area. In 1884, Hodgson was sent by the SPR to India to investigate Helena Blavatsky, in 1886 and 1887 a series of publications by S. J. Davey, Hodgson and Sidgwick in the SPR journal exposed the slate writing tricks of the medium William Eglinton. Hodgson with his friend, S. J. Davey had staged fake séances for educating the public, Davey gave sittings under an assumed name, duplicating the phenomena produced by Eglinton, and then proceeded to point out to the sitters the manner in which they had been deceived. Because of this, some spiritualist members such as Stainton Moses resigned from the SPR, in 1891, Alfred Russel Wallace requested for the Society to properly investigate spirit photography. Sceptics have criticized members of the SPR for having motives liable to impair scientific objectivity, Myers stated that he Society for Psychical Research was founded, with the establishment of thought-transference--already rising within measurable distance of proof--as its primary aim. The sceptic and physicist Victor J. Stenger has written, The SPR. on occasion exposed blatant cases of even their own credulous memberships could not swallow

13.
Cock Lane ghost
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The Cock Lane ghost was a purported haunting that attracted mass public attention in 1762. The location was an apartment in Cock Lane, a road adjacent to Londons Smithfield market. The event centred on three people, William Kent, a usurer from Norfolk, Richard Parsons, a parish clerk, following the death during childbirth of Kents wife, Elizabeth Lynes, he became romantically involved with her sister, Fanny. Canon law prevented the couple from marrying, but they moved to London and lodged at the property in Cock Lane. Parsons claimed that Fannys ghost haunted his property and later his daughter, regular séances were held to determine Scratching Fannys motives, Cock Lane was often made impassable by the throngs of interested bystanders. The ghost appeared to claim that Fanny had been poisoned with arsenic, but a commission whose members included Samuel Johnson concluded that the supposed haunting was a fraud. Further investigations proved the scam was perpetrated by Elizabeth Parsons, under duress from her father and those responsible were prosecuted and found guilty, Richard Parsons was pilloried and sentenced to two years in prison. The Cock Lane ghost became a focus of controversy between the Methodist and Anglican churches and is referenced frequently in contemporary literature, Charles Dickens is one of several Victorian authors whose work alluded to the story and the pictorial satirist William Hogarth referenced the ghost in two of his prints. In about 1756–57 William Kent, a usurer from Norfolk, married Elizabeth Lynes and they moved to Stoke Ferry where Kent kept an inn and later, the local post office. They were apparently very much in love, but their marriage was short-lived as within a month of the move Elizabeth died during childbirth and her sister Frances—commonly known as Fanny—had during Elizabeths pregnancy moved in with the couple and she stayed to care for the infant and its father. The boy did not survive long and rather than leave, Fanny stayed on to care of William. Fanny meanwhile stayed with one of her brothers at Lyneham, despite her familys disapproval of their relationship, Fanny began to write passionate letters to Kent, filled with repeated entreaties to spend the rest of their lives together. He eventually allowed her to him at lodgings in East Greenwich near London. The two decided to live together as man and wife, making wills in each others favour, in this, however, they did not reckon on Fannys relations. In response, Kent had him arrested, while attending early morning prayers at the church of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, William Kent and Fanny met Richard Parsons, the officiating clerk. Although he was considered respectable, Parsons was known locally as a drunk and was struggling to provide for his family. He listened to the plight and was sympathetic, offering them the use of lodgings in his home on Cock Lane. Shortly after Mr and Mrs Kent moved in, Kent loaned Parsons 12 guineas and it was while Kent was away at a wedding in the country that the first reports of strange noises began

14.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker

15.
Robert Kirk (folklorist)
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Folklorist Stewart Sanderson and mythologist Marina Warner call Kirks collection of supernatural tales one of the most important and significant works on the subject of fairies and second sight. In the late 1680s, Kirk travelled to London to help one of the first translations of the Bible into Scottish Gaelic. Gentleman scientist Robert Boyle financed the publication of the Gaelic Bible, Kirk died before he was able to publish The Secret Commonwealth. Legends arose after Kirks death saying he had taken away to fairyland for revealing the secrets of the Good People. Scottish author Walter Scott first published Kirks work on more than a century later in 1815. Andrew Lang later gave it the title, The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns. Multiple editions of The Secret Commonwealth have since been published, with notable scholarly analysis by Sanderson, Mario M. Rossi, Kirk was born in Aberfoyle, Scotland, the seventh and youngest son of James Kirk, minister at Aberfoyle, Perthshire. He studied theology at St Andrews and received his masters degree at Edinburgh in 1661, Kirk became minister of Balquhidder in 1664, and later of Aberfoyle, from 1685 until his death. In 1670, he married his first wife, Isobel Campbel, Isobel produced a son, Colin, who became a writer to the signet. When she died on 25 December 1680, Kirk cut out an epitaph for her with his own hands and his second wife, Margaret, the daughter of Campbell of Fordy, bore him a second son, Robert, who became a minister at Dornoch, Sutherlandshire. Kirk was a Gaelic scholar, the author of the first complete translation of the Scottish metrical psalms into Gaelic, published at Edinburgh in 1684 as Psalma Dhaibhidh an Meadrachd, &c. During its preparation Kirk learned that the synod of Argyll intended to bring out a rival version, in 1689, Kirk was called to London to superintend the printing of An Biobla Naomhtha, the Gaelic Bible that had begun decades earlier under the direction of Bishop William Bedell. To this version Kirk added a short Gaelic vocabulary, which was republished, Kirks involvement in Bedells Bible was at the request of his friend James Kirkwood, a promoter of Scottish Gaelic literacy. The printing was funded by scientist Robert Boyle, a member of the Royal Society, Kirks tomb is located in the Aberfoyle churchyard. His grave was marked by a stone with the inscription, Robertus Kirk, popular legend questions whether his ashes or even his body is buried there. After his death, folktales arose saying that his body had been taken away by fairies to become the Chaplain to the Fairy Queen, according to Sayce, both share a theme common to ancestral spirit cults—the departed are taken away to fairyland. Historian Michael Hunter believed that Kirk also saw the value of second sight in vindicating the supernatural against atheists, Kirk probably encountered opposition to his supernatural beliefs in the secular and sceptical climate of 17th century coffeehouses in Restoration London, during his visit in 1689. Kirk collected these stories into a manuscript sometime between 1691–1692, but died before it could be published, Folklore scholars consider The Secret Commonwealth one of the most important and authoritative works on fairy folk beliefs

16.
P. T. Barnum
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Phineas Taylor P. T. Barnum was an American politician, showman, and businessman remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and for founding the Barnum & Bailey Circus. Barnum is widely, but erroneously, credited with coining the phrase Theres a sucker born every minute, born in Bethel, Connecticut, Barnum became a small-business owner in his early twenties, and founded a weekly newspaper, before moving to New York City in 1834. Barnum used the museum as a platform to promote hoaxes and human curiosities such as the Feejee mermaid, in 1850 he promoted the American tour of singer Jenny Lind, paying her an unprecedented $1,000 a night for 150 nights. After economic reversals due to bad investments in the 1850s, and years of litigation and public humiliation, he used a lecture tour, mostly as a temperance speaker and his museum added Americas first aquarium and expanded the wax-figure department. While in New York, he converted to Universalism and was a member of the Church of the Divine Paternity, Barnum served two terms in the Connecticut legislature in 1865 as a Republican for Fairfield. It may tenant the body of a Chinaman, a Turk, elected in 1875 as Mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut, he worked to improve the water supply, bring gas lighting to streets, and enforce liquor and prostitution laws. Barnum was instrumental in starting Bridgeport Hospital, founded in 1878, the circus business was the source of much of his enduring fame. He established P. T. Barnums Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan & Hippodrome, a circus, menagerie and museum of freaks. Barnum died in his sleep at home in 1891, and was buried in Mountain Grove Cemetery, Bridgeport, Barnum was born in Bethel, Connecticut, the son of inn keeper, tailor and store-keeper Philo Barnum and second wife Irene Taylor. He was the great grandson of Thomas Barnum, the English immigrant ancestor of the Barnum family in North America. His maternal grandfather Phineas Taylor was a Whig, legislator, landowner, justice of the peace, and lottery schemer, Barnum was adept at arithmetic but hated physical work. He started as a store-keeper, and he learned haggling and using deception to make a sale and he was involved with the first lottery mania in the United States. At the age of 19, he married Charity Hallett, the young husband had several businesses, a general store, a book auctioning trade, real estate speculation, and a statewide lottery network. He became active in politics and advocated against blue laws promulgated by Calvinists who sought to restrict gambling. Barnum started a paper in 1829, The Herald of Freedom, in Danbury. His editorials against church elders led to libel suits and a prosecution which resulted in imprisonment for two months, but he became a champion of the movement upon his release. In 1834, when lotteries were banned in Connecticut, cutting off his income, Barnum sold his store. Joice Heth died in 1836, no more than 80 years old, Barnum improved the attraction, renamed Barnums American Museum, upgrading the building and adding exhibits, and it became a popular showplace

17.
Ghost
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In folklore, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear to the living. Descriptions of ghosts vary widely from a presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to realistic. The deliberate attempt to contact the spirit of a person is known as necromancy. The belief in the existence of an afterlife, as well as manifestations of the spirits of the dead is widespread, certain religious practices—funeral rites, exorcisms, and some practices of spiritualism and ritual magic—are specifically designed to rest the spirits of the dead. Ghosts are generally described as solitary, human-like essences, though stories of ghostly armies and they are believed to haunt particular locations, objects, or people they were associated with in life. Ghosts exist as a concept only, despite centuries of investigation, the English word ghost continues Old English gást, from a hypothetical Common Germanic *gaistaz. It is common to West Germanic, but lacking in North Germanic, the pre-Germanic form was *ghoisdo-s, apparently from a root denoting fury, anger reflected in Old Norse geisa to rage. The Germanic word is recorded as only, but likely continues a neuter s-stem. The original meaning of the Germanic word would thus have been a principle of the mind, in particular capable of excitation. In Germanic paganism, Germanic Mercury, and the later Odin, was at the time the conductor of the dead. It could also denote any good or evil spirit, such as angels and demons, also from the Old English period, the word could denote the spirit of God, viz. the Holy Ghost. The now-prevailing sense of the soul of a person, spoken of as appearing in a visible form only emerges in Middle English. The synonym spook is a Dutch loanword, akin to Low German spôk, alternative words in modern usage include spectre, the Scottish wraith, phantom and apparition. The term shade in classical mythology translates Greek σκιά, or Latin umbra, haint is a synonym for ghost used in regional English of the southern United States, and the haint tale is a common feature of southern oral and literary tradition. The term poltergeist is a German word, literally a noisy ghost, wraith is a Scots word for ghost, spectre, or apparition. It appeared in Scottish Romanticist literature, and acquired the general or figurative sense of portent or omen. In 18th- to 19th-century Scottish literature, it applied to aquatic spirits. The word has no commonly accepted etymology, the OED notes of obscure origin only, an association with the verb writhe was the etymology favored by J. R. R. Tolkien

18.
Haunted house
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Ghosthouse is a 1988 Italian-American horror film directed by Umberto Lenzi and produced by exploitation film auteur Joe DAmato. It co-starred Lara Wendel and Donald OBrien and its plot focuses on a deserted house where the visions of a ghostly girl and her haunted doll wreak havoc on those who enter it. The film is the unofficial Italian sequel to Evil Dead II, in the United States, La Casa 3 was released as Ghosthouse, with director Lenzi being credited under the alias Humphrey Humbert. A group of unlikely companions receive a radio call leading to a house with a grisly past. After exploring the house, the group makes the decision to split up, leading to a trail of death. Along the way expect severed heads, exploding light bulbs, demonic clown dolls, moon as Pepe Susan Muller as Mrs. Baker Alain Smith as Samuel Baker William J. Devany as Lieutenant Ralph Morse as Coroner Robert Champagne as Mortician Hernest Mc. Kimnoro as Cemetery Custodian Ghosthouse was shot on location in Boston and Cohasset, the house featured in the film is the same house used in Lucio Fulcis The House by the Cemetery. The film was released theatrically in Italy in August 1988, and this film has been released twice on Region 2 DVD in the UK as Ghosthouse, once by Vipco in 2004 with no cuts, the second by Cornerstone Media in 2009. In January 2012 the film was released as a download and VOD with humorous commentary by RiffTrax and this was released to DVD in November 2013 along with the un-riffed version of the film. The film has also seen DVD releases in Germany and Italy. The film was released for the first time in North America on Blu-ray in June 2015 as a double feature, La Casa series - An Italian rebranding of several otherwise unrelated horror films, including Ghosthouse. Ghosthouse at the Internet Movie Database Comparison of DVD releases

19.
Ghost ship
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Undated – The Caleuche is a mythical ghost ship which, according to local folklore and Chilota mythology, sails the seas around Chiloé Island, Chile at night. Undated – The Fireship of Baie des Chaleurs is a form of ghost light, the phenomenon has been the source of many a tall tale, and has been said to appear as a flaming three-mast galley much like the style of ship featured on New Brunswicks provincial flag. 1748 onwards – The Lady Lovibond is said to have been wrecked on 13 February 1748 off Goodwin Sands, Kent, England. 18th century onwards – The Ghost Ship of Northumberland Strait is the apparition of a ship which is regularly reported between Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, Canada. 1795 onwards – The Flying Dutchman is said to be a ship commanded by a captain condemned to sail the seas. It has long been the principal ghost ship legend among mariners and has inspired several works, 19th century onwards – The Princess Augusta, misremembered in local folklore as the Palatine, was wrecked near Block Island, Rhode Island, U. S. in 1738. Since then, a known as the Palatine Light has been reported. 1858 onwards – The Eliza Battle was a steamer that burned in 1858 on the Tombigbee River, Alabama. She is reported to reappear, fully aflame, on cold,1872 or 1882 – A legend states that the Iron Mountain mysteriously disappeared in 1872 and left barges it was towing floating down the river. In reality, the ship ran aground and sank north of Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1882,1878 onwards – An apparition of the HMS Eurydice has been reported where the ship sank in 1878 off the Isle of Wight, English Channel. Witnesses include a Royal Navy submarine in the 1930s and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex,1895 – A ghostly Galleon was reported in Chapel Cove, Newfoundland. According to folklore, it is the ghost of a Spanish Treasure Galleon that was blown off course during a storm in the 17th century, One of the lifeboats from Valencia was found adrift in 1933. 1928 – The København was last heard from on December 28,1928, for two years following its disappearance sightings of a mysterious five-masted ship fitting its description were reported in the Pacific Ocean. 1775, The Octavius, an English trading ship returning from China, was found drifting off the coast of Greenland. The captains log showed that the ship had attempted the Northwest Passage, the ship and the bodies of her frozen crew apparently completed the passage after drifting amongst the pack ice for 13 years. Bloody papers identified Duc de Dantzig and her master, François Aregnaudeau, more soberly, the ships register of the maritime archives states Duc de Dantzig, unheard of as of 1813, presumed lost with all hands. 1840, The schooner Jenny was supposedly discovered after spending 17 years frozen in an ice-barrier of the Drake Passage, found by Captain Brighton of the whaler Hope, it had been locked in the ice since 1823, the last port of call having been Lima, Peru. The Jenny is commemorated by the Jenny Buttress, a feature on King George Island near Melville Peak,27 October 1913, the Singapore newspaper The Straits Times published a story according to which the Marlborough had been discovered near Cape Horn with the skeletons of her crew on board

20.
Hungry ghost
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Hungry ghost is a concept in Chinese Buddhism and Chinese traditional religion representing beings who are driven by intense emotional needs in an animalistic way. The term 餓鬼 èguǐ, literally hungry ghost, is the Chinese translation of the term preta in Buddhism, Hungry ghosts play a role in Chinese Buddhism and Taoism as well as in Chinese folk religion. The term is not to be confused with the term for ghost. The understanding is that all people become such a regular ghost when they die, with the rise in popularity of Buddhism, the idea became popular that souls would live in space until reincarnation. In the Taoist tradition it is believed hungry ghosts can arise from people whose deaths have been violent or unhappy. Both Buddhism and Taoism share the idea that hungry ghosts can emerge from neglect or desertion of ancestors, according to the Hua-yen Sutra evil deeds will cause a soul to be reborn in one of six different realms. According to the tradition, evil deeds that lead to becoming a hungry ghost are killing, stealing, desire, greed, anger and ignorance are all factors in causing a soul to be reborn as a hungry ghost because they are motives for people to perform evil deeds. There are many legends regarding the origin of hungry ghosts, in the Buddhist tradition there are stories from Chuan-chi po-yuan ching that is from the early third century. Some examples of stories are as follows, One story is of a rich man who traveled selling sugar-cane juice. One day a monk came to his house looking for some juice to cure an illness, the man had to leave, so he instructed his wife to give the monk the drink in his absence. Instead of doing this, she secretly urinated in the bowl, added sugar cane juice to it. The monk was not deceived, he poured out the bowl, when the wife died she was reborn as a hungry ghost. Another such tale is of a man who was giving and kind, One day he was about to leave his house when a monk came by begging. The man instructed his wife to give the monk some food, after the man left his house his wife was overcome with greed. She took it herself to teach the monk a lesson. She was reborn as a hungry ghost for innumerable life times, most times the legends speak of hungry ghosts who in a previous lifetime were greedy women who refused to give away food. Other stories in the Buddhist tradition come from Kuei wen mu-lien ching, One of the stories tells of a man who was a diviner who constantly misled people due to his own avarice and is now a hungry ghost. There is another story in The Legend of Mu-lien Entering the City, the story is about five hundred men that were sons of elders of the city they lived in

21.
Stone Tape
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The idea was first proposed by British archaeologist turned parapsychologist Thomas Charles Lethbridge in 1961. Philosopher H. H. Price also invented a concept in 1940. Lethbridge believed that ghosts were not spirits of the deceased, but were simply non-interactive recordings similar to a movie, the idea was popularized in 1972 in a Christmas ghost story called The Stone Tape, produced by the BBC. Chunks of stone just do not have the properties as reels of tape. Richard Wiseman has also written there is no evidence for the stone tape theory of ghosts. According to Wiseman the idea is completely implausible – as far as we know, there is no way that information about events can be stored in the fabric of a building

22.
Vengeful ghost
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In mythology and folklore, a vengeful ghost or vengeful spirit is said to be the spirit of a deceased person who returns from the afterlife to seek revenge for a cruel, unnatural or unjust death. The concept of a vengeful ghost seeking retribution as a spirit for harm that it endured as a person goes back to ancient times and is part of many cultures. They may not be satisfied until they have succeeded in punishing either their tormentors who made their life bitter, or and they usually return to the world of the dead after justice is done, but in some cases may remain unappeased. In certain cultures vengeful ghosts are mostly female, said to be women that were treated during their lifetime. Such women or girls may have died in despair or the suffering they endured may have ended up in early death caused by the ill-treatment or torture they were subject to. Exorcisms and appeasement are among the religious and social customs practiced by various cultures in relation to the vengeful ghost, the northern Aché people group in Paraguay cremated old people thought to harbor dangerous vengeful spirits instead of giving them a customary burial. In cases where the person has been killed and the body disposed of unceremoniously, others have been known to salt and burn their body, the place where they were killed or the instrument that they were killed with. Vengeful ghosts have been featured in contemporary movies of different countries such as Candyman, The Grudge, The Pit. Lemures in Roman mythology are the wandering and vengeful spirits of those not afforded proper burial, funeral rites or affectionate cult by the living, keres, spirits of violent or cruel death in Greek mythology. A restless female spirit said to haunt certain locations in Scotland such as Crathes Castle, Knock Castle, in some tales she was murdered in a green dress, and then stuffed unceremoniously up the chimney by a servant. It is said that her footsteps can still be heard as she walks the castle in sadness, mogwai, a vengeful ghost or demon in Chinese mythology Nü gui is a vengeful female ghost of the Chinese folklore. Yuan gui, the spirits of persons who have died wrongful deaths, chudail, a female ghost of Indian folklore, well known in North India and Pakistan. This spirit is said to originate in a woman who died either in childbirth, in pregnancy or during her menstruation, a generic name of the Japanese folklore for ghosts who come back from purgatory for a wrong done to them during their lifetime. Onryō are mostly women and often manifest themselves in rather than spectral form. Funayūrei are ghosts that have become vengeful spirits at sea and they are mentioned in the folklore of various areas of Japan. Kuchisake-onna, the vengeful ghost of a woman mutilated by her husband Mu-onna, also known as Woman in White. Can be a spirit from Mexico who drowned her own children because her husband left her. A female spirit who believed her husband had an affair with her mother in Venezuela, a female spirit from South America that appears as a beautiful woman

23.
Ghosts in Bengali culture
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Fairy tales, both old and new, often use the concept of ghosts. In modern-day Bengali literature, cinema and also in radio & television media, there are also many alleged haunted sites in this region. It is believed that the spirits of those who find peace in the afterlife or die unnatural deaths remain on Earth. The common word for ghosts in Bengali is bhoot or bhut and this word has an alternative meaning, past in Bengali. Also the word Pret is used in Bengali to mean ghost, in Bengal, ghosts are believed to be the spirit after death of an unsatisfied human being or a soul of a person who dies in unnatural or abnormal circumstances. Even it is believed that animals and creatures can also be turned into ghost after their death. The Bengali Hindu community celebrates Bhoot Chaturdashi, which occurs on the 14th day of Krishna Paksha at the night before Kali Puja / Dipaboli festival. On this night, Bengalis lit 14 earthen-lamps at their homes to appease the spirits of their past 14 generations of ancestors. It is believed that in the night before Kali Puja, the spirits of these ancestors descend upon earth, and these lamps help them find their loving homes. Another popular belief is that Chamunda along with 14 other ghostly forms ward off the spirits from the house as 14 earthen-lamps are lit at different entrances. Also, it is customary to consume a dish of 14 types of leafy vegetable during Bhoot Chaturdashi, few of such supernatural entities are mentioned here, Petni / Shakchunni, Petni are basically female ghosts who died unmarried or have some unsatisfied desires. The word Petni originated from the Sanskrit word Pretni, the word Shakchunni comes from the Sanksrit word Shankhachurni. It is a ghost of a woman who usually wears a special kind of traditional bangles made of shell in their hands. Shakchunni usually possess the rich married women so that they can enjoy the pleasures of married life and they are usually depicted wearing a red or white saree. They usually live near ponds and lakes, and might possess a woman when they go near ponds for daily chores. People say Petni and Shakchunni also live in Shayora or Tetul trees and they are believed to be shape-shifters, and can take any appearance. Beings such as Petni or Shakchunni are also known as Churel in different places in India, Damori, Tantric practices and black magic have been very popular in rural Bengal in the past for many centuries. Some rural people from Bengal, obsessed with the occult, used to travel to Kamrup-Kamakhya in Assam in order to learn Trantic ways, many Sadhu, Tantric, Aghori, Kapalik and Kabiraj devoted their lives in pursuit of occult practices

24.
Nat (spirit)
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The nats are spirits worshipped in Burma in conjunction with Buddhism. They are divided between the 37 Great Nats and all the rest, almost all of the 37 Great Nats were human beings who met violent deaths. They may thus also be called nat sein, the word sein, while meaning green, is being used to mean raw in this context. There are however two types of nats in Burmese Buddhist belief, nat spirits are termed lower nats or auk nats, whether named or unnamed, whereas ahtet nats or higher nat dewas inhabit the six heavens. Much like sainthood, nats can be designated for a variety of reasons, nat worship is less common in urban areas than in rural areas, and is practised among ethnic minorities as well as in the mainstream Bamar society. It is however among the Buddhist Bamar that the most highly developed form of ceremony, every Burmese village has a nat sin which essentially serves as a shrine to the village guardian nat called the ywa saung nat. One may inherit a certain member or in some two of the 37 Nats as mi hsaing hpa hsaing from one or both parents side to worship depending on where their families originally come from. One also has a guardian spirit called ko saung nat. Some disagreement in fact exists in academic circles as to whether Burmese Buddhism, many Burmese themselves would say it is merely superstition and tend to downplay its role in society. Worship of nats predates Buddhism in Burma, with the arrival of Buddhism, however, the nats were merged, syncretistically, with Buddhism. The most important nat pilgrimage site in Burma is Mount Popa, the annual festival is held on the full moon of the month of Natdaw of the Burmese calendar. Taungbyone, north of Mandalay, is another site with the festival held each year starting on the eleventh waxing day. Yadanagu at Amarapura, held a week later in honour of Popa Medaw, Nats have human characteristics, wants, and needs. They are flawed, having desires considered derogatory and immoral in mainstream Buddhism, during a nat pwè, which is a festival during which nats are propitiated, nat kadaws dance and embody the nats spirit in a trance. Historically, the nat kadaw profession was hereditary and passed from mother to daughter, until the 1980s, few nat gadaws were male. Since the 1980s, persons identified by outsiders as transgender women or gay male transvestites have increasingly performed these roles, music, often accompanied by a hsaing waing, adds much to the mood of the nat pwè, and many are entranced. King Anawrahta of Bagan designated an official pantheon of 37 nats after he had failed to enforce a ban on nat worship, seven out of the 37 Nats appear to be directly associated with the life and times of Anawrahta. The Thirty-seven Nats-A Phase of Spirit-Worship prevailing in Burma

25.
Ghosts in Chinese culture
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Chinese folklore features a rich variety of ghosts, monsters, and other supernatural creatures. According to traditional beliefs a ghost is the form of a person who has died. Ghosts are typically malevolent and will cause harm to the living if provoked, Many Chinese folk beliefs about ghosts have been adopted into the mythologies and folklore of neighboring cultures, notably Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia. Beliefs about ghosts are associated with Chinese ancestor worship, where much have been incorporated into Taoism. Later beliefs were influenced by Buddhism and in turn influenced and created uniquely Chinese Buddhist beliefs about the supernatural, traditionally, the Chinese believed that it was possible to contact the spirits of deceased relatives and ancestors through a medium. It was believed that the spirits of the deceased can help if they were properly respected and rewarded. On this day ghosts and other creatures come out from the Underworld. Families prepare food and other offerings and place them on a dedicated to deceased relatives. Incense and paper money are burned and other rituals are performed in hopes that the spirits of the dead will protect, Ghosts are described in classical Chinese texts, and continue to be depicted in modern literature and movies. Characters such as 魇 meaning nightmare also carry related meanings, Yan Wang, also called Yanluo is the god of death and the sovereign of the underworld. He is also the judge of the underworld, and decides whether the dead will have good or miserable future lives, although ultimately based on the god Yama of the Hindu Vedas, the Buddhist Yan Wang has developed different myths and different functions from the Hindu deity. Yan Wang is normally depicted wearing a Chinese judges cap in Chinese and Japanese art and he sometimes appears on Chinese Hell Bank Notes. Zhong Kui is the vanquisher of ghosts and evil beings, portraits of him were hung in Chinese houses at the end of the Chinese lunar year to scare away evil spirits and demons. He is depicted as fierce man with a face and a comic beard brandishing a magic sword. Zhong Kui is said to be himself the ghost of a man who failed to pass the civil service examinations and he then became a ghost hunter. There is a story that the Emperor Xuanzong of Tang once dreamed that a small ghost stole the purse of the imperial consort, a larger ghost - Zhong Kui - captured the smaller one and returned the purse. There has been extensive interaction between traditional Chinese beliefs and the more recent Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, ancestor worship is the original basic Chinese religion. The core belief is that there is a continued existence after death and it is thought that the soul of a deceased person is made up of yin and yang components called hun and po

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Ghost Festival
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The Ghost Festival, also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival in modern day, Zhong Yuan Jie_ or Yu Lan Jie is a traditional Buddhist and Taoist festival held in Asian countries. According to the Chinese calendar, the Ghost Festival is on the 15th night of the seventh month. On the fifteenth day the realms of Heaven and Hell and the realm of the living are open, intrinsic to the Ghost Month is veneration of the dead, where traditionally the filial piety of descendants extends to their ancestors even after their deaths. Elaborate meals would be served with empty seats for each of the deceased in the family treating the deceased as if they are still living. Other festivities may include, buying and releasing miniature paper boats and lanterns on water, in Tang-dynasty China, the Buddhist festival Ullambana and the Ghost Festival were mixed and celebrated together. To Mahayana Buddhists, the lunar month is a month of joy. This is because the day of the seventh month is often known as the Buddhas joyful day. The origins of the Buddhas joyful day can be found in various scriptures, when the Buddha was alive, his disciples meditated in the forests of India during the rainy season of summer. Three months later, on the day of the seventh month, they would emerge from the forests to celebrate the completion of their meditation. Because the number of monks who attained enlightenment during that period was high, in the Ullambana Sutra, there is a descriptive account of a Buddhist monk named Maudgalyāyana, originally a Brahmin youth who later ordained, and later becoming one of the Buddhas chief disciples. Mahāmaudgalyāyana was also known for having clairvoyant powers, an uncommon trait amongst monks, the tale is contained in. a canonical collection of short sutras translated into Chinese by Gautama Samghadeva between 397 and 398. After he attained arhatship, he began to think deeply of his parents and he used his clairvoyance to see where they were reborn and found his father in the heavenly realms i. e. the realm of the gods. However, his mother had been reborn in a realm, known as Avīci. His mother had been greedy with the money he left her and he had instructed her to kindly host any Buddhist monks that ever came her way, but instead she withheld her kindness and her money. It was for this reason she was reborn in the realm of hungry ghosts, Maudgalyāyana eased his mothers suffering by receiving the instructions of feeding pretas from the Buddha. By doing so, the pretas hunger would be relieved, through these merits, his mother was able to be reborn as a dog under the care of a noble family. Maudgalyāyana then sought the Buddhas advice to help his mother gain a human birth, the Buddha established a day after the traditional summer retreat on which Maudgalyāyana was to offer food and robes to five hundred bhikkhus. Through the merits created, Maudgalyāyanas mother finally gained a human birth, the Ghost Festival is held during the seventh month of the Chinese calendar

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Ghosts in Filipino culture
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There are many references to Ghosts in Filipino culture, ranging from ancient legendary creatures such as the Manananggal and Tiyanak to more modern urban legends and horror movies. The beliefs, legends and stories are as diverse as the people of the Philippines, the Filipino term for a ghost is multo, which is derived from the Spanish word muerto, meaning dead. The multo is the soul of a person that has returned to the mortal world. It may want to finish a task or promise, or take revenge. The ghost may be seeking a replacement so that it can live again, the Manananggal has some similarities to the Penanggalan of Malay legend, a floating female head with trailing entrails. Beliefs in the origin of manananggals vary, one story says that heredity or contamination by physical or supernatural means can turn someone into a manananggal. For example, contaminating someones meal with an old manananggals saliva or human flesh can pass it on, in some ways the manananggal resembles the tik-tik, a type of aswang that takes the form of a black bird which makes a tik-tik-tik sound. It has a proboscis that reaches through the roof and sucks the fetus inside the womb of pregnant women. The tik-tik may be related to the Indonesian Kuntilanak, a bird that makes a ke-ke-ke sound as it flies. The tiyanak is a malevolent creature that may be found in grassy fields. It appears as a helpless infant, when someone takes pity and picks it up, it turns into a demon, scratching and biting or devouring its victim. In the south, the tiyanak is known as a patianak or muntianak, in Malaysia and Indonesia it is the pontianak, or the mother who died in childbirth, who appears as a normal person, then turns into a fiend when the passerby approaches. Common themes in ghost legends include the White Lady, the headless priest, the white lady appears in lonely places, dressed in white, with no visible face or with a disfigured face. Apparently she has died a violent death and is still haunting the vicinity, the headless priest prowls at night in a graveyard or ruined place, either carrying his severed head or searching for his head. One of the stories tells of three boys who pick up a girl near a cemetery and take her to a party. On the way back, the girl complains of the cold, the girl disappears near the cemetery, and the boys find the jacket neatly folded on the headstone of her grave. In another story, the hitchhiker asks to be taken to a given address, when they arrive, the hitchhiker has disappeared, but it turns out that she used to live at that address and this is the anniversary of her death. Balete Drive is a located in New Manila, Quezon City known for apparitions of a white lady

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Ghosts in Thai culture
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Belief in ghosts in Thai culture is both popular and enduring. In the history of Thailand Buddhist popular beliefs intermingled with the legends about the spirits or ghosts of the local folklore and these myths have survived and evolved, having been adapted to the modern media, such as Thai movies, Thai television soap operas and Thai comics. Some of the ghosts of Thai culture are shared with neighboring cultures, krasue, for example is part of the Cambodian, Lao and Malay culture as well. A few of these, including the tall Pret, are part of the mythology of Buddhism and they are others though, such as Phi Dip Chin, which have entered the Thai ghost lore through the Chinese community residing in Thailand for the past few centuries. Thai spirits or ghosts are known generically as Phi, a large proportion of these spirits are nocturnal. Except for the well-known Pret, most ghosts were not represented in paintings or drawings. The local beliefs regarding the village spirits of Thailand were studied by Phraya Anuman Rajadhon, ghosts are believed to be found, among other places, in certain trees, burial grounds near Buddhist temples, as well as some houses, especially abandoned houses. There are different categories of ghosts, certain ghosts dwelling in mountains and forests are generally known as Phi Khao and Phi Pa. Female ghosts or fairies related to such as Nang Ta-khian. Owners can take advantage of the power of magic to protect them like Khwai Thanu. Khamot, a luminescent ghost Khwai Thanu, also known as Wua Thanu, owners can take advantage of the power of black magic to protect them. Mae Nak, a female ghost who died at childbirth and that can extend her arms Mae Sue, a goddess or a female ghost of infants Nang Mai. Phi Ngu, also known as Phrai Ngu or Ngueak Ngu, Phi Phong, a malevolent male ghost having an unpleasant smell. It manifests itself in different ways, one of them being St. Elmos fire, among other uncanny phenomenons experienced by sailors, also a slang for naughty men. Phi Thuai Khaeo, the ghost that makes the upturned glass move Pret, the Phi-Ka ghost is a kind of ghost that originates in Northern Thailand. It looks like the Phi-Pob ghost because it takes the form a human body, the belief is that it likes eating raw meat. The Phi-Ka ghost can be divided into six types, first, the Phi-Ka-Phranang is one of the most well-known of this variety of ghost as it is believed that a sacrifice made to this ghost can bring fame and fortune to those seeking it. Another well-known example of type of ghost is the Phi-Ka-Dong

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Ghosts in Tibetan culture
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There is widespread belief in ghosts in Tibetan culture. When a human dies, after a period of uncertainty they may enter the ghost world, a hungry ghost has a tiny throat and huge stomach, and so can never be satisfied. Ghosts may be killed with a dagger or caught in a spirit trap and burnt. Ghosts may also be exorcised, and a festival is held throughout Tibet for this purpose. Some say that Dorje Shugden, the ghost of a powerful 17th-century monk, is a deity, but the Dalai Lama asserts that he is a wrathful spirit, which has caused a split in the Tibetan exile community. But eventually, the person will die in this world and be reborn as a human or other creature unless they achieve Nirvana. Some are described as having mouths the size of a needles eye and this is a metaphor for people futilely attempting to fulfill their illusory physical desires. Sometime individuals have a predominance of hungry ghost in their makeup and they can never get enough, and are always hungry for more. The Tibetan word for the state of the hungry ghost, ser na, literally means yellow nosed. The person in state is constantly seeking to consume and to enrich themselves. A tulpa is a type of ghost or being that is created through mental effort, a very skilled Buddhist practitioner or sorcerer may have this ability, and in some cases a Tulpa may be created from the collective thoughts of the villagers. Such a ghost is not self-aware at first, but may gradually acquire awareness, the phurba is a ritual dagger used by a tantric practitioner to release an evil spirit from its suffering and guide it to a better rebirth. Such a spirit is a being which lingers in confusion between different realms, by plunging the dagger into it, it is thrown out of its confusion and gets the chance to be reborn, probably as a lower kind than human. Families often mount ghost-traps on the roofs of their houses, spindle-like contraptions wound with colored yarns, a spirit trap may also be hung in a tree. The series of interlocking threads is thought to ensnare the spirit, the temples and monasteries throughout Tibet hold grand religious dance ceremonies, with the largest at Potala Palace in Lhasa. Families clean their houses on this day, decorate the rooms, ༼དགུ་ཐུག་༽ In the evening, the people carry torches, calling out the words of exorcism. A story tells of a man who met a ghost while out walking, the ghost started walking with him, which made him very frightened, although he hid his fear and pretended that he too was a ghost. The ghost left the man resting, entered the town and stole the soul of the kings son, returning to the man, the ghost left the sack in his care for a while

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Supernatural beings in Slavic religion
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Supernatural beings in Slavic folklore come in several forms, and the same name can be spelled or transliterated differently according to language and transliteration system. They live around hills, mountains, and high mounds and they can appear as a ghost-like figure with a long billowing cloak wrapped around them. In Polish mythology, the Wiła, and in South-Slavic mythology the Vila, are believed to be female fairy-like spirits who live in the wilderness and they were believed to be the spirits of women who had been frivolous in their lifetimes and now floated between here and the afterlife. They usually appear as beautiful maidens, naked or dressed in sparkling beautiful white dresses, green skirts of leaves and it is said that if even one of their hairs is plucked, the Vila will die, or be forced to change back to her true shape. A human may gain the control of a vila by stealing a piece of the vilas skin, once burned, though, she will disappear. The voices of the Vilas are as beautiful as the rest of them, despite their feminine charms, however, the Vila are fierce warriors. The earth is said to shake when they do battle and they have healing and prophetic powers and are sometimes willing to help human beings. At other times, they lure young men to dance with them and they will kill any man who defies them or breaks his word. Vila rings of thick grass are left where they have danced. Offerings for Vila consist of round cakes, ribbons, fresh fruits, in modern times, it is not uncommon to use the term for any female supernatural entity. In Croatian folklore, the Velebit mountain range is famous for mythical fairies, named vilas in the Serbian mythology are, Andresila, Andjelija, Angelina, Djurdja, Janja, Janjojka, Jelka, Jerina, Jerisavlja, Jovanka, Katarina, Kosa, Mandalina, Nadanojla and Ravijojla. Ravijojla is the best known of them, connected to Prince Marko, in a love song titled Vilja, from The Merry Widow by Lehar and Ross, a hunter pines for Vilia, the witch of the wood. In some tales, the reason for abandoning their loves is a sad one, the Vila are cursed never to find their true love. If they do, that love will die a terrible death and these wilis have been adapted from a poem of Heinrich Heine, who claimed to be using a Slavic legend. Meyers Konversationslexikon defines Wiles or Wilis as female vampires, the spirits of betrothed girls who die before their wedding night, according to Heine, wilis are unable to rest in their graves because they could not satisfy their passion for dancing naked, especially in town squares. They also gather on the highway at midnight to lure young men, the first opera completed by Giacomo Puccini, Le Villi, makes free use of the same thematic material. It had its debut in May 1884 at the Teatro dal Verme, Milan, and was revised for a successful reception at the Royal Theater, Turin. Vilas are said to be able to bring storms and other weather

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Reportedly haunted locations in the United Kingdom
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There are a number of reportedly haunted locations in the United Kingdom. Airfields around the country are said to have paranormal activity arising from the spirits of airmen who died in World War II, airfields include, the former RAF Bircham Newton in Norfolk. The former RAF East Kirkby in east Lincolnshire, the former RAF Elsham Wolds, near the A15 just north of Barnetby in North Lincolnshire. It has been featured on various television programmes. Belgrave Hall in Leicester, attracted attention in 1999 when a figure was captured on CCTV. One theory is it is the daughter of a former owner,50 Berkeley Square is reputed to be the most haunted house in London. Borley Rectory in the village of Borley, Essex, England, the Black Lady of Bradley Woods is supposedly seen near Bradley, Lincolnshire. Brislington, once an attractive Somerset village but now a neighbourhood in Bristol, is reputed to have many ghosts, brookside Theatre in Romford Bruce Castle in Tottenham, North London. Dartmouth, Devon, ancient maritime town has many ghost stories, Edge Hill, Warwickshire the location of the first battle of the English Civil War, the Battle of Edge Hill. Ghostly sightings and noises of the battle have been reported ever since the war, ettington Park Hotel, a neo-Gothic building in Warwickshire. Hampton Court Palace, home of King Henry VIII of England, on 21 December 2003, CCTV footage allegedly showed someone in 16th-century clothes and no face closing a fire door that, though locked, was constantly being opened without anyone near it. RAF Metheringham is the location for the known as the Metheringham Lass. Minsden Chapel, a ruin in Hertfordshire, is reputed to be visited at midnight on All Hallows Eve by a monk who climbs now-vanished stairs while the lost bells toll. The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall, renishaw Hall, a stately home in Derbyshire. Tower of London Ballygally Castle Springhill – the 17th-century Plantation House, in Llanfihangel Crucorney, The Skirrid Mountain Inn, one of the oldest public houses in Wales, is reputed to be home to several ghosts. Llancaiach Fawr, a Tudor manor house near Nelson in the Caerphilly County Borough is allegedly haunted by a number of ghosts, in 2007, the Guardian listed Llancaiach as one of the top ten haunted places in the United Kingdom. Plas Teg is a Jacobean house located near the village of Pontblyddyn between Wrexham and Mold, the house has featured on Livings Most Haunted programme on two occasions. The second occasion was featured as part of the Halloween Most Haunted Live and it was also featured in Ghost Hunting With

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Reportedly haunted locations in Scotland
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There are a number of reportedly haunted locations in Scotland. A fifteen-mile stretch of the A75, between Annan and Dumfries, is reported to be haunted, ackergill Tower Airth Castle Ardrossan Castle is said to be haunted by the ghost of William Wallace. Ballechin House Culzean Castle Dryburgh Abbey Hotel Edinburgh Castle The Edinburgh Vaults The television series Most Haunted, fyvie Castle is said to be haunted. Glamis Castle Holyrood Palace is said to be haunted by Bald Agnes, mary Kings Close an underground close in the Old Town area of Edinburgh. RAF Montrose, now Montrose Air Station Heritage Centre, is said to be haunted by the ghost of Desmond Arthur, category, Paranormal places List of ghosts List of reportedly haunted locations in the world

A benevolent Brahmadaitya saving a poor Brahmin man from a group of Bhoot (ghosts), while the man was cutting a branch from the yonder banyan tree or Ashwattha tree. An illustration by Warwick Goble (1912). Taken from the 1912 illustrated edition of Folk-Tales of Bengal by Lal Behari Dey.

In mythology and folklore, a vengeful ghost or vengeful spirit is said to be the spirit of a dead person who returns …

The spirit of the vengeful priest Raigo returns as a rat plague and destroys the Mii Temple. T. Yoshitoshi 1891

As a husband passes by the place where his pregnant wife was brutally murdered, her ghost appears and hands their child to him. She then tells him the story of her murder and assists him as he takes revenge for her death. Utagawa Kuniyoshi 1845